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rZJEA SE CIR C ULA TE. C^5 7 

THE VETO POWER: 

ITS NATURE AND HISTORY; 
THE DANGER TO THE COUNTRY FROM ITS EXERCISE, 



THE TRUE POSITION OP PARTIES AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN 

RELATION TO IT. 



J 



BY CHARLES dKDRAKE, ^^^ 

OF CINCINNATI, dklO. % .i-^C 



IF- 






. People op the United States ! while your attention is anxiously di- 
rected to the various questions of domestic Policy involved in the elections 
of this year — questions, it is admitted, of great magnitude and importance- — 
do not overlook the fact, that upon the result of the Presidential contest, 
depends a matter of Constitution'al Principle, lying at the very foun- 
dation of our Republican System of Government, and connected with the 
highest and most enduring interests of this land. 

THE QUESTION, 

^Mio shall make laics for this Country, the President or Congress ? 

This is the question ; and what patriot can be blind to its transcendent and ab- 
sorbing importance ! 

It may bo aeked — do'^-i not the Conslilalion vest the law-making po-vver in Con- 
gress? It undoubtedly does ; but the candid observer of the events of the last tv\''en- 
ty years, cannot have shut his eyes to the startling fact, that the theory of our 
Government has been, in effect, almost, if not quite, overturned; — that Congress, 
by the w^anton av^ injurious use of the Veto Povs-er, vested by the Constitution 
in the President, : 1 by the exertion of the ini-uence of the Executive, through his 
official power and patronage, has been degraded from its elevated sphere, and forced 
into a secondarj^ and inglorious position ; — and that the President is fast becoming 
virtually the source of most of the important legislation of the General Government. 

The people have, almost unresistingly, suffered this work to go on, until a most 
alarming perversion of public sentiment has taken place. One of the great parties 
into which the Nation is divided, and that, too, which arrogates to itself the title 
of Democratic, has become the avowed -advocate of the Executive Veto, and of its 
use in every case where a bill is passed by Congress, conflicting with its party 
schemes or dogmas ; while the Whig Party, though ever opposed to the aggran- 
dizement of the Executive, has failed to put forth its whole might against the ex- 
ercise of this mischievous and despotic power. 

MOMENTOUS FACTS IN RELATION TO THE VETO POWER. 

The people certainly have not fully investigated the we'ght, power, and effect of 
the Executive Veto, or they would with one voice, cry out against its further use, in 
the spirit and manner in which it has been resorted to within the last twenty years. 
It is a singular and deeply interesting fact, which should arouse every man in the coun- 
try to attend to this grave subject, thai the Veto is equal in poioer to TWO MIL- 
LIONS, SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE THOUSAND, EIGHT 
HUNDRED AND FORTY PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY, andmorethan 
equal to FOUR STATES OF THIS UNION ! That is, whenever a President 
chooses to interpose his single will against the will of Congress, in relation to any 
bill, it requires, over and above a majority, the representatives of that number of 
people, and the Senators from that number of States, to overcome that single will. 

Attend, for a moment, to the Jacts and figures by which this statement is proved. 



The House of Representatives, of Congress, consists of 230 members, of which 
116 are a majority, and 154 are two-thirds. The Senate is composed of 60 mem- 
bers, of which 31 are a majority, and 40 are two-thirds 

Now, if a bill receive 116 votes in the House, and 31 votes in the Senate, and 
be signed by the President, it becomes a law. But, if he put his Veto upon it, as 
the v°tes of two-thirds of each house are necessary to its passage, it cannot become 
a law without 154 votes in the House and 40 in the Senate. It takes, therefore, 
just 38 votes in the House and 9 in the Senate, more than a majority, to overcome 
the Veto. Each of those 38 votes in the House represents 70,680, and the whole 
2,685,840 people. Every two of these 9 votes in the Senate represents the 
power of on3 State, and the whole more than four States. H^nce the Veto is 
equal in nower to that number of people and States. 

Anoth?,r fact most strikingly illustrates the exorbitant power of the Veto. It is, 
thai it needs but one vote more than one-thhd of either House of Congress to 
sustain the will of the President and make it absolute. For instance : — a bill, 
vetoed by the President, may be passed, notwithstanding the Veto, by the votes 
of the Avhole 230 members of the House of Representatives, and may receive 39 
votes in the Senate ; or it may be passed unanimously by the Senate, and receive 
153 votes in the House ; and yet, in either case, for the want of one vote, fail to 
become a law, though sustained by an overwhelming majority in both houses.- — 
Now, as it is the most improbable thing in the world, that the President could not 
find, in one house or the other, a sufficient number of members, impelled by friend- 
ship to him, or by concurrence of opinion with him, or by the hope of preferment 
by him, to sustain his Veto, it follows, that for every practical purpose, the Veto is 
just as absolute as if it were so declared by the Constitution. 

'in the light of these facts, the great truth stands out with vivid distinctness, /^af 
the exercise of the Veto destroys the very first principle of our Republican Sys- 
tem— THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO GOVERN. Whenever the 
.. PrfisJAfti-vf r-hr..->^.r.c-, ,. ^, ,>-.«it<... u^-- /^»i:^Kiy ^r- ^,.{^]roA]y, to resort to that power, the 
government is, by that act in that particular case, thrown into the hands of the 
minority. And, as every minority government is in principle a despotism, it fol- 
lows that the exercise of the Veto establishes, in each individual case, a despotic 
power in the minority over the majority. True, the power might not be despotically 
used. That would depend upon the object and temper of the President in applying 
the Veto, and upon the extent of his sway over the minority ; but whether so used 
or not, the principle is there, and may at any time be brought into action ; and that 
should be enough to excite in every American freeman an intense jealousy of the 
Veto power, and an unyielding and sleepless opposition to its improper exercise. 

THE DANGER. 

Assumption of power, as all history proves, is always and everywhere progres- 
-sive. Every step taken in that direction, is but the precursor of another. No 
subversion of public liberty ever was accomplished, v/ithout a series of preparatory 
acts, clearing the way for the final and overwhelming blow. The extraordinary 
and willful exercise of the Veto power, by Presidents of the United States, within the 
last twenty years, has opened the door for further and more alarming aggressions on 
the rights of Congress and the people ; and it requires no gift of prophecy to fore- 
tell, that unless a check be speedily given to the progress of Executive domination, 
Congress will have been completely and slavishly subjected to the will of the Pre- 
sident, long ere the Government shall have reached the close of its first century. 

Let every American citizen, then, look deliberately and carefully at this great 
question, and let him look at it now. Matters of policy may, under certain cir- 
■cumstances, be postponed for a time ; but this is a fiuidamental principle of rep- 
resentative government, and therefore not to be laid aside or disregarded, or treated 
in any way but by a strong and determined assertion of the people's rights. 

MEANING OF THE WORD "VETO." 

" Veto," a Latin word, transplanted into our vocabulary, signifies — ^^ I forbid. ''■ 
It was the word used in ancient Rome, by the Tribunes of the people, when they 
prohibited any decree of the Senate. 



History informs us tliat the persons of these Tribunes were sacred, and their 
■authority absolute. Sitting at the door of the Senate House, the decrees of the 
-Senate were brought to them for approval, and the Veto ot a single Tribune was 
-sufficient to prohibit their execution. The word was essentially dictatorial and the 
power, suppressive. But history also informs us that these Tribunes were the 
officers of the people^ chosen to protect the rights of the common people against 
the tyranny of the aristocracy ; that the Veto was applied only to such decrees of 
the Senate as were deemed prejudicial to the interests of the people ; and that the 
creation of popular magistrates with such high powers, was the era of a change in 
the Roman Constitution, and plainly converted the Government into a Democracy. 

Nearly two thousand j^ears have rolled aw"ay since the days of the Veto of the 
"Tribunate, and the Veto pov/er is in force in another Republic far greater than 
Rome. But, .as we shall endeavor to shov,'^, its character has altogether changed. 
Its use here is not to protect the people from aggression, but to defeat their will ; 
its tendency here is to concentrate power in the hands of one 7nan, not to uphold 
the rights and supremecy of the People. 

WHENX'E DO WE GET THE VETO POWER. 

This feature of our Constitut'on, as well as some others, was derived from Great 
Britain. The King of that realm is invested Avith an absolute Veto on bills passed 
bj Parliament. No bill upon which he places his Veto can become a law. The 
framers of our Constitution, .wise and far-seeing as they were, did not apprehend 
•an}^ danger to our free institutions from entrusting the President with a qualified 
negative upon bills passed by Congress ; and so they allowed him to veto any bill, 
but, at the same time, reserved to Congress the power to pass it, notwithstanding the 
Veto, by a vote of two-thirds in each house. 

The King of England had not, for ninety-three years before our Constitution was 
formed, exercised the Veto power. To this circumstance is probably to be attri- 
buted the introduction of that power into the Constitution. Had the British King 
heen accustomed, by a continued and frequent exercise of the Veto, to interfere 
with the v/ill of the people expressed through Parliament, we may fairly suppose its 
evils would liave been .c;o oppav^n*^, tl-.a.t +Ko Hnn vention of 1787 would either have 
omitted it entirely from the Constitution, or bestowed it wuii i>u>:.k KmUntibns as 
-would have rendered its use unfrequent and harmless. But that great and patriotic 
body, apprehensive, rather, that Congress would be disposed to trench upon the 
rights of the President, and desirous to shield him from encroachment ; and fearing 
no Executive aggression on the Legislative Department ; placed in the hands of 
the President this kingly power ; which, backed by his official patronage and in- 
fluence, has made him more potent than the British King in arresting the action of 
tthe people's Representatives, and has been exercised oftener, perhaps, within 
twenty years, by our Republican Presidents, then by all of Eng^iand's monarchs 
■ever since England had a Parliament. 

THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF THE VETO OF THE BRITISH KING. 

Since we derive the Veto from Great Britain, an important pnrpose may be sub- 
served by inquiring into its nature and object there. This we gather from the 
great work of Blackstone on the Laws of England, from which we present the 
followiDg extract, clearly exhibiting the whole subject in a brief space: 

■*' The constituent parts of a Parliament are, the King's majesty, sitting there in his royal political 
capacity, and the three estates of the realm : the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, (who sit together 
with the King in one house,) and the Commons, who sit by themselves in another. And the King 
and these three estates together, form the great corporation or body politic of the kingdom, of which 
the King is said to be caput, prindpiuni, ef finis — the head, the beginning, and the end. 

"It is highly necessary, for preserving the balance of the Constitution, that the E.xecutlve power 
shoitld be a branch, though not the whole of the Legislature. The total union of them, we have 
■seen, would be productive of tyranny ; the total disjunction of them, for the present, would in the 
end produce the same effects, by causing that union against which it seems to provide. The Legis- 
lature would soon become tyrannical, by making continual enroachments, and gradually assuming 
to itself the rights of the Executive power. To^hinder, therefore, any such enroachments, the King 
is himself a part of the Parliament : and as this is the reason of his being so, very properly therefore the 
■share of legislation which the Constitution has placed in the crown consists in the power of rejec- 
iing rnthex thnn resolving ; this being sufficient to answer the end proposed. The Crown cannot 
begin of itself any alterations in the present established law ; but it may approve or disapprove of 
h\o alterations suggested and consented to by the tM-o houses." 



Here we have, from the great law writer of England, a succinct and simple 
delineation of this kingly prerogative. The King, he says, is the head, the be- 
ginning and the end of the body politic. This is forcibly illustrated b^' the style- 
of the laws passed by the British Parliament, which is in these words-^-"^e it 
enacted by the King^s most excellent Majesty^ by and with the advice and consent 
of the Lords spiritual and tevxporal and Commons.'''' And yet, though the King 
of England is the head, the beginning and the end of the body politic, the Veto 
power is in his hands merely a dejensive weapon^ intended to protect liiraself and 
his rights, and never designed to be used in thwarting the will of the People, or m 
compelling Parliament to legislate according to his will. We shall presently see 
that Presidents of this Republic have far outstripped "his Royal Majesty" in the 
use of this power, and have turned it into a weapon of offense and compulsiorsj 
instead of defense and protection. 

THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF THE PRESIDENT'S VETO. 

The late Justice Story, whose name and fame as a profound and unsurpassed 
jurist are known over the world, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the 
United States, thus sums up all the reasons which have been advanced for invest- 
ing the President with the Veto Power : 

" The reasons why the President should possess a qualified negative, if they are not quite obvionSj, 
are, at least, when fairly expounded, entirely satisfactory. In tne first place there is a natural ten- 
dency in the legislative department to intrude upon the rightf?, and to absorb the powers of the other 
departments of the Government. A mere parchment delineation of the boundaries of each is whoUy 
insuiEcient for the protection of the weaker branch, as the Excutive unquestionably is ; and hence 
there arises a constitutional necessity of arming it with powers for its own defence. If the Executive 
did not possess this qualified negative, he v/ould be gradually stripped of all his authority and become, 
what it is well known the Governors of some states are, a mere pageant and show of magistracy. 

" In the next place, the power is important, as an additional security against the enactment of 
rash, immature and improper laws. It establishes a salutary check upon the legislative body, cal- 
culated to preserve the community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, unconstitutional le- 
gislation, and temporary excitements, as well as political hostility." 

Mark, now, that the leading and important reason for placing this royal power 
in the hands of the President, is d-io /^ar«o oo that s^cigned by Blackstnne for 
ai!o«-i.,g ;t t<;r vti^R-ing — the protection of the Executive frorn legislative encroach- 
ment-^ and, thereby, the preservation of the balance of power among the different 
departments of the government. The Executive was considered '■'the weaker 
branch," and therefore in need of protection. How mistaken were the framersof 
the Constitution in their foresight in this instance ! They desired to shield the 
President from legislative aggression, but saw no danger to Congress or the people 
from the power of the Executive. How perplexed and astonished would they 
now be, could they return frotu their graves, to behold the Representatives of the 
people thwarted and set at naught by the President, and submissively looking to- 
wards him to ascertain what he will Veto and what approve ! 

The other reason for reposing the Veto power in the President, as stated by 
Justice Story, is, the protection of the country " against the enactment of rashj. 
immature, and iiDproper laws, and against the effects of faction, precipitancy, un- 
constitutional legislation, and temporary excitement, as well as political hostility.'^ 

Upon every ground, then, viewing it in the light of the Constitution, the power 
is in its whole tendency and its widest scope, strictly defensive and conservative. 
Not a word can any where be found, authorizing the supposition that the Veto 
would ever be used to trammel and control the action of Congress, and subject \t 
to the will of the President. Nothing could have been farther from the purpose 
of the Convention, than paving the way for any such interference with the inde- 
pendence of the National Legislature. The intention of that body was to keep 
the different departments of the government as distinct and separate from each 
other as possible. In this they saw the only safety of the momentous experiment 
on which the country was ertering. 

THE DEPARTURE FROM THE RIGHT LINE. 

From the adoption of the national Constitution to the time of Gen Jackson's- 
Administration — a period of forty years — the several departments of the Govern-* 
ment moved on in their respective spheres harmoniously, neither encroaching on 



the others. Gen. Jackson, in his Inaugural A(.ldre.ss, expressed correct views of 
tits position and province as President, in the fallowing language : 

" As tlie instrument of the Federal Constitution, it will devolve upon me, for a stated period, to 
•axecute the laws of the United States; to superintend their foreign and confederate relations ; to 
. manage their revenue ; to command their forces ; and, by communications to their Legislature, to 
watch over and promote their interests generally." 

Had these views been adhered to, we may safely conclude that the time would 
yet have been far distant, when Thomas Jeffkrson's prophecy would be fulfilled. 
That distinguished and sagacious man said : " The Executive in our Government 
is not the sole, it is scarcely the principal object of my jealousy. The tyranny of 
the Legislatures is the most formidable dread at present, and will be for many 
^ears. That of the Executive will comein its turn ; but it loill he at a remote periodP'' 

Remote, indeed, would it have been, but for the thought that took possession 
^of Gen. Jackson's mind, soon after his Administration began, that he was the Re- 
presentative of the People, and a part of the legislative department of the Govern- 
nient, and, therefore, entitled to impress his opinions and plans upon the legisla- 
tion of Congress. From this point the historian will date the departure of the 
government from its true theory, and the beginning of Executive aggression on 
the constitutional province of Congress. 

GEN. JACKSON'S FIRST FALLACIOUS ASSUMPTION. 

Gen. Jackson had not been fifteen months in the Presidential chair, before he 
.struck his first blow at Internal Improvements, by, his Veto of the Maysville 
Road Bill. This was the first step in his career of aggression on the sphere of 
•Congress. Anticipating popular discontent at this step, and not yet regardless of 
the opinions and wislies of the people, he felt the necessity of drawing them to 
liis support ; and he sought, therefore, to establish in their minds the idea of a 
■close and intimate relation between him and them. Hence he boldly advanced 
the claim, never before set up by any President, that he was ttie Represemative of 
the People., and they his constituents. Twice in the course of his Veto Message 
lie uses the phrase, " my constituents?'' 

It is not too much to say, that never did a public officer fall into a more fatal 
error, than this. In no possible sense is the President the Representative of the 
People. The Constitution nowhere recognizes any representatives of the people, 
but those in Congress. The senators do not represent the people because they 
are not chosen by the people, but by the State Legislatures^ and are intended to 
represent the States as such. 

Neither does the President represent the people. He is not chosen by them, 
but by the States, represented by electors, chosen in every state except South 
darolina, by the people. The Constitution reads thus : 

" JiJach State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislatui'e may direct, a number of Electors, 
equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the 
viCon^ress." 

Trom this we learn that, though the people are commonly spoken of as voting 
'for a particular person for President, yet they do not in fact vote for him^ but for 
•certain persons, to act as electors. These electors cast the vote of the State, not 
•of the People. We further learn that, though the people choose the electors, yet 
'the Constitution regards the choice as Tproceed'wgkom the states, in their corporate 
♦ capacity, and not from the people. 

Indeed, the Constitution seems to have been framed with an express view to 

-exclude the idea of the President being a Representative of tiie People. Not only 

=does this appear from the manner in which he is chosen, but from the total absence 

from that instrument of any word or phrase, which, directly or indirectly, requires 

•or authorizes him, under any possible circumstances, to express the will or wishes 

of the people, on any subject. He is appointed for the sole purpose of wielding 

•*' t?ie Executive power'''' of the government, as defined by the Constitution : and is 

ims more a representative of the people than a sheriff, or other ministerial officer, 

to whom no one has ever thought of ascribing that character, though he is generally 

elected by their direct votes, and is therefore better entitletl |han the President tQ 

be considered their representative. 



If the President be a representative, who are his constituents in South Carolina^ 
where the people have no voice whatever in choosing the electors, but where they* 
are chosen by the legislature ? Are the people there his constituents ? Certainly 
not, for they do not vote for him or for the electors. Who then are? Plainly, 
if any one, the electors, or at farthest the legislature ; which reduces the whole 
thing to a bald absurdity. 

Again : when, as may often happen, the President and the House of Repre- 
sentatives are at variance, which is the representative of the people ? Take for att 
example, the present illustrious occupant of the white house. He is a Locofoco, 
and was elected in 1844. The House of Representatives is Whig, and was elect- 
ed in 1846 and 1847. Now, which represents the people, the one man, elected 
four years ago, as the Executive, or the two hundred and thirty men, elected one 
and two years ago, as Representatives ? A Locofoco will, of course, declare for the 
one man ; but the people know better, and will decide in favor of the two hundred 
and thirty. Hence, again, is apparent the preposterous nature of this unconstitu- 
tional assumption of representative character for the President. 

GEN. JACKSON'S SECOND FALLACIOUS ASSUMPTION. 

Not only was the President claimed to be a representative of the people, but 
the grasping spirit of Executive usurpation set him up as a part oj the legislative 
department of the government. Gen. Jackson, looking beyond our Constitution 
into that of Great Britain, and finding that the King is a part of the Parliament, 
came to the conclusion that the President, by analogy, ought to be considered a 
part of the law-making power of this government. Seizing on the grant of power,. 
by the Constitution to the President, to revise the bills passed by Congress, and to 
approve or dieapprore iliem, he cousirueU ii iuio an investment of him with legis- 
lative qualifications and powers. 

Far more serious in its inroads on the Constitution than the claim of a repre- 
sentative character for the President, this assumption will, with fatal certainty,, 
overthrow the government, if carried out to its legitimate consequences. When 
the President asserts that the people are his constituents, he does not by that mere 
fact violate the Constitution, though he departs very widely from its spirit; but 
when he claims that he is a branch of the legislative department, the claim itself 
is a violent disregard and contempt, and carrying out the claim into action a total 
overthrow, of the very first section of the Constitution, which reads : 

"ALL legislative power* herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States 
which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." 

No language could more perfectly express an idea. It is impossible to give it 
two meanings. Our english tongue is incapable of embodying the simplest pro- 
position, if that sentence does not, without the possibility of a mistake, not only 
declare who shall possess the legislative power, but entirely exclude any one but 
Congress from having any thing to do with that power. And yet it was and is 
claimed, in defense of executive aggression, that the President is a part of the 
national legislature, and entitled to participate in its legislation. Whenever that 
claim is recognized and established, our government, though perhaps still wearing^ 
the garb of Republicanism, will be in fact a Monarchy, armed with the powers 
and fitted for the work of despotism. 

GEN. JACKSON S THIRD FALLACIOUS ASSUMPTION. 

How true is it, that the spirit of usurpation grows by what it is fed upon ! The 
possession of executive power by the President was not enough, and he claimed to 
be a representative of the people. This, still, was not sufficient, and he set himself 
up as a part of the legislative department. Still unsatisfied, he assumed to himself 
judicial attributes. Were any thing needed to fill the measure of Executive aggres- 
sion, this was the thing. Unite in the hands of the President, executive, legislative^ 
and judicial powers, and what more ceuld the aspirant for absolute sway desire .'' 

One would think, when the Constitution so clearly separates these great powers, 
and confides each to a separate body, that to concentrate any two of them in one 
person or body were impossible. With locofocoism, however, all things which 
partake of assumption, are not only possible, but quite natural. 



The Constitution vests '' the judicial power of tho United Stales in one Suprenne 
Court ; and though that power is, by that instrument declared " to extend to all 
cases in law and equity, arising under the Constitution or tlie laws of the United 
States ;" from which language it would seem impossible to escape the conclusion 
that the President is absolutely prohibited from the exercise of judicial functions ; 
yet, Gen. Jackson, in his Veto message on the bank bill, did not shrink from as- 
serting, in unqualified terms, the rightof the Piesident to decide what is constitu- 
tional and what not, regardless of the opinion of the Supreme Court, the only tri- 
bunal erected by the Constitution for the final decision of constitutional questions. 

The Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Marshall at its head, had, after a most 
labored investigation of the whole subject, solemnly decided that the Constitu- 
tion conferred upon Congress the power to establish the late bank of the United 
States. It was necessary, for the defense of the Veto of the bill rechartering that in- 
stitution, that the force and authority of this judgment should, if possible, be over- 
thrown. To this point the President did not hesitate to address himself. Read his 
language, and mark well the bold spirit of innovation and defiance which pervades it. 

" If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to con- 
trol the co-ordinate authorties of this Government. The Congress, the Executive, &nd the Court, 
must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who 
takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it, and 
not as it is understood by others. * * * rpjig opinion of the judgts has no more au- 
thority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges ; and, on that point, the 
President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be per- 
mitted to control Congress or the Executive, when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have 
onl}^ such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve." 

Let it be borne in mind that we are not here discussing the constitutionality of 
the bank of t!ie United States •, but establishing the progress of Executive usurpa- 
tion, by proofs drawn from the action of the President on that question. Let no 
man, therefore, who believes the bank unconstitutional, fly off on that point, and 
disregard the proofs we present, because they are taken from a message, the main 
doctrines of which he may approve. Though he m.ay think the President right 
in vetoing the bank bill, yet lei him not turn away his mind from the unheard-of 
doctrine, contained in the above sentences, that the President holds in his hands 
legislative and judicial, as well as executive powers ; in short, that a// power is 
lodged with him, and that he is the government. That doctrine is there in its 
broadest import, and he must be blind, indeed, v/ho cannot see it. 

THE USE OF THE VETO ON THE GROUND CF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTION 

INVESTIGATED. 

In view of iTie claim of a right in the President to interpose the Veto in every case 
where he finds constitutional objections to a bill, let us devote a brief space to the 
investigation of that right. There is more in the point than at first strikes the mind. 
The Veto on constitutional grounds may be the salvation of the Constitution, but 
it may also be its destruction. The right understanding of this subject is, there- 
fore, of the highest importance to the welfare and stability of our institutions. 

The right of the President to veto a bill on constitutional grounds is not denied. 
His duty to exercise that right, whenever tlie Constitution is violated, is freely 
admitted ; for he takes an oath " to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution." 
The question is not, whether he possesses this right, oris bound by this duty, but, 
when should the right be exercised ': fiere the advocates and opponents of the use 
of the Veto separate; the former to assail, the latter to defend the Constitution. 

The position of General Jackson, and those who agree with him, is, that the 
President is authorized to exercise the Veto, in any and every case, where, by any 
course of reasoning he may choose to adopt, he may bring his mind to the conclusion 
that a bill is unconstitutional. In other words, that when the President settles in 
his own mind, by construction of the Constitution, no matter how remote, how 
difficult to be arrived at, how illogical, how untrue in law and in iact, that a bill is 
inconsistent with that instrument, he need not stop to inquire whether it plainly 
and clearly contravenes any given clause, but is bound to veto it. And further, 
that, in fixing his construction and drawing his conclusions, he is to be guided only 
by his understanding of the Constitution, without regard to precedents, to the 



8^ 

judgment of Congress, to the opinion of the Supreme Court, or to any thing else 
but the light which his own mind affords him. 

This doctrine the Whig party, ever the opponents of kingly prerogative and one- 
man government, utterly deny and condemn, as being nothing more or less than 
the English doctrine that " the King can do no ivr-ong^''^ newly dressed up ; and 
as leading to the inevitable overthrow of the glorious fabric of government reared 
by the wisdom of the fathers of the Republic. It is a doctrine which sets at 
naught constitutional checks, limitations, and safeguards, and puts ^:he entire power 
of the Government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, into the hands of one man, 
constituting him, in every essential particular, A MONARCH. 

The proof of this lies in the simple proposition, clear to the most limited compre- 
hension, that no bill of an important character can be passed by Congress, 
against lohich an ingenious or perverted mind cannot contrive to array same con- 
struction of the Constitution. The construction may be utterly wrong; maybe 
to the whole world inexpressibly absurd ; may be as insulting to the intelligence of 
the nation, as to assert that two and tvv'o do not make four ; yet, according to Lo- 
cofoco doctrine, that makes no difference; the President is the judge of the cor- 
rectness of his own construction ; and there is nothing to forbid his basing a veto 
on it, but his own conscientious sense of honesty, justice, and official obligation ! 
Upon that frail and insufficient suppoit let no man repose any hope. The entire 
history of mankind proves that the lust of power, once seated in the human heart, 
drives thence, with remorseless energy, all conscience, all honesty, and ail sense 
of justice. We have, and shall always have, in this land, men tired by that lust, 
who v/ould not withhold the torch, from our most sacred institutions, if, by applying 
it, they could rise to absolute dominion. Against such men, our only protection is 
the virtue and intelligence of the people, and an ever-watchful, iron opposition to 
the progress of Executive usurpation. 

In what case, then, is the right of the President clear, to exercise the Veto on 
constitutional grounds .'' The answer is — in that case, and no other, where Con- 
gress, beyond all question, violates THE LETTER of the Constitution — where 
there is no need of argument or construction to prove the violation — but where no 
argument or construction can conceal or eaylain it away. In this principle is the 
only safety of the country from oppressive resort to the Veto on constitutional 
grounds. Any departure from it opens the way wide for unrestrained assumptioa 
of pov."er, based on arguments and constructions which the President himself sets 
up, and of the validity of which, he, by an unconstitutional usurpation of judicial 
character, constitutes himself the sole and irresponsible judge . 

THE NATURAL RESULT OF GENERAL JACKSON'S ASSUMPTIONS. 

It was hardly possible for General Jackson, or any other person occupying the 
Presidential chair, to fix in his mind the notion of his being a representative of the 
people and a part of the legislative department of the Government, without his 
attempting to participate in, if not control, the action of Congress. He would, of 
course, deem it his duty to represent what he might regard as the will of those 
whom he held to be his constituents, and to do his share in making the laws of the 
country. Accordingly, we find him, in the course of his eight years administration, 
averting his legislative rights, by defeating, no less than twelve times, bills passed 
by Congress. This was thrice oftener than had been done by all the Presidents 
before him, in the forty years that the Government had been in existence. 

Not satisfied with the prsventive power conferred by the Constitution, and with 

an unprecedented and violent exercise of it, he went far beyond his constitutional 

sphere, and, assuming what had never been even so much as hinted at by any of 

his predecessors, sought to fashion the legislation of Congress by his own will. 

His message, conveying his veto of the United States Bank bill, contained a clear 

and well-defined declaration of his claim to be applied to by Congress for plans of 

legislation. He there says — 

" That a Bank of tlie United States competent to all duties which may be required by the Gov- 
emment might be so organized as not to infringe on our own delegated powers, or the reserved 
rights of the States, I do not entertain a doubt. Had the E.vective been cax-led vFO^.to furnisfi 
the project of such an insfiti'.tion, thi duty irould have been cheerfully perfonmd." 



Never since the formation of our Government has there been so open and undis- 
guised an attempt to dictate to Congress; to make the President the source as well 
as the final approver of legislation; and to concentrate in his hands, not only in theo- 
ry, but in practice, the legislative as well as the Executive power. 

THE FOLLOWIiSG IN THE FOOTSTEPS. 

Though no successor of General Jackson has ventured ope7ih/ to follow him, to 
the full extent, in the path of unconstitutional encroachment and assumption, yet 
the spirit that actuated him has been transmitted to his successors, who have, with 
less boldness and harshness, but with not less certainty, imposed their will upon 
Congress. The time predicted by Thomas H. Bento:t, has long since come, 
when our Government is 'the Government of ONE MAN. 

When that gentleman v/as a prominent actor in the ruthless war upon the Ad- 
ministration of John Quincy Adams, which resulted in driving that great man 
and pure patriot from the Presidency, he made^ on the 4th May, 1826, to the Sen- 
ate, a Report on Executive Patronage, in which, after depicting the extent of that 
patronage at that time, he used the following emphatic language, since so remark- 
ably verified by those he aided to bring into power: 

"We must, then, look forward to the time when the public revenue will be doubled ; when the 
civil and military officers of the Federal Government will be quadrupled ; when its influence over 
individuals will be multiplied to an indefinite extent; when the nomination by the President can. 
carry any man through the Senate, and his recommendation can carry any measure through the 
two Houses of Congress; when the principle of public action will be open and avowed, — the Pre- 
sident wants my vote, and I want his pa-tronage ; I wii! rote gs he wishes, and he will give me the' qf- 
Jice I icishfor. What will this be but the Government of one man? And what is ihe Government 
of one man but a Monaiichy?" 

Who can deny that Col. Benton was a prophet when he wrote this .-' Was ever 
truer picture drawn than this exhibits of the results of J^ocofoco rule, since the 4th 
of March, 1829.'' Does not every man in the country, v/ho has observed the 
course of events since that date, kiioto that, by, the most shameless exertion of Ex- 
ecutive influence, through the Veto power, but more especially through the "spoils" 
•of office, the President has obtained almost absolute control over the action of Con- 
gress? While, in the British House of Commons, the rnembers are, by a standing 
rule of that body, prohibited from stating in debate what is the will of the King on 
any subject, does- not this whole nation know that, ever since the second year of 
General Jackson's Administration, the President's will and wishes have been con- 
.stantly declared and urged in Congress, to carry through or defeat measures pend- 
ing before that bod}'.'' 

Hear, on this point, the testimony of Daniel Webstek, uttered in the presence 
of the Senate, without contradiction. He had been in Congress, nearly constant- 
iy^ for thirt)' years, and he declared that he had never known a President to set his 
heart on ani/ great yacasiire ivhich he did not force through Congress. 

Hear, also, the testimony of John M. Clayton, delivered in the Senate on the 

5th of July last, and not disputed by any one : 

"I first came to Congress nearly twenty years ago, and I have since been an attentive observer 
of men and things here, though one of the humblest actors on this theatre, where men with loud 
professions of Democracy on their lips, cherish the most despotic principles in their hearts; and 
I now say, that the monarchical tendency has every year been growing stronger; that many oj our 
legislatire acts of the most important character are draughted at the Executive Departments to suit 

THE WILL OF THE EXECUTIVE ; AND THAT CoNORESS HAS DEGENERATED, UNDER DEMOCRATIC PRES- 
IDENTS, TILL IT IS LITTLE BETTER THAN THE REGISTER OF THE EDICTS OF AN EM- 
PEROR." 

There is not a man in Congress, who, if compelled to testify, Avould not admit 
the absolute truth of this testimony. There is not a Locofoco there who does not 
sustain the interference of the President, by his veto, and by his official power and 
patronage, in the legislation of Congress, whenever that interference will promote 
ihe interests or measures o/the Locofoco party. 

the "I'OCKET" veto. 

Had the Presidents of the last twenty years confined themselves to the legitimate 
exercise of the Veto power, there might be some little show of defence of their con- 
duct. It could, at least, be said that they had done no more than the letter of the 
Constitution authorizes, and, for any violations of its spirit, they might have pleaded 



10 

the dictates of conscience! But the constitutional power to disapprove and return 

bills to Congress, — the qualified veto, v/hich Congress rnight, by a two-thirds vote, 

set aside, — v/as not enough. The thirst for kingly power was excited, and could 

be slaked by nothing else or less than what it craved. Absolute dominion over 

Congress was wanted, and a w-ay was found to wield it in certain cases. Hence 

the resort to what has been aptly termed the ^^PockeV Veto, — which has been well 

characterized as "a vile trick and a fraud upon the people and their representatives." 

The operation of this trick is thus. The Constitution provides as follows : 

" If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it 
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in Uke manner as if he had signed it, un- 
less Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law." 

It is well known that many of the most important measures before Congress are 
matured and finally acted upon within the last ten days of a session. Gen. Jack- 
son saw in this circumstance the means of putting, in effect, an absolute veto on 
bills obnoxious to him, which were thus passed at the close of a session. With 
him, to see the means was to use them when opportunity offered; and he did not 
hesitate to pervert the plain and unquestionable intention of the Constitution, by 
resorting to this clause of it for the suppression of the action of Congress. So, in 
no less than eight instances, during his Administration, when bills, which he was 
determined should not become laws, were presented to him within the last ten days 
of a session, he defeated them by keeping them in his possession until after the ad- 
journment of Congress. 

Such a thing had happened but once before in the history of the Government. 
On one occasion, during the Administration of Mr. Madison, a bill was presented to 
him, "at an /towr," as he stated in a subsequent message, "^oo near the close of 
the session to be returned with objections for reconsideration." He could, of ne- 
cessity, do nothing less than retain it; and we are bound, by every sentiment of 
reverence for his exalted and truthful character, to believe that he had no thought 
of thwarting Congress in this way, but was placed in circumstances which com- 
pelled him to act as he did. This was widely different, however, from that pur- 
pose of despotic sway, and that reckless defiance of the people's will, which, since 
the beginning of Locofoco rule, has, by this cowardly proceeding, smothered no 
less than twelve important bills, every one of which, there is reason to believe, 
might have been returned to Congress, with the President's objections, but were 
pocketed by the Executive, because it was intended that they should be, — not sus- 
pended for reconsideration, as the Constitution contemplates, — but killed^ past all 
hope of resuscitation. 

THE LAST OF THE VETO IN ENGLAND. 

While the' Veto power has, of late years, been called into almost constant use in 
our Republican Government, we have to search back in the history of England 
one hundred and fifty-four years^ before we come to an instance of its exercise! 
While the people of Great Britain have almost forgotten that their .King has a veto, 
the citizens of Republican America have become as familiar with this kingly wea- 
pon of despotism as with household words, arid look with stoical indifference upon 
its use, not remembering that its essential character is tyrannical, and its every ex- 
ercise subversive of Republican principles. 

The last instances of resort to this power by the British King were during the reign 
of William HI. In 1692 Parliament passed a bill for establishing the independ- 
ence of the judges, and confirming their salaries. It had been the practice of the 
Stuarts, especially in the last years of their dynast}^, to dismiss judges, who showed 
any disposition to thwart the Government in political prosecutions. To arrest this 
practice, and make the judges independent, as well in regard to the tenure as to the 
emoluments of their offices, the bill referred to was passed. The King refused his 
assent to it; but, mark the fact, in less than ten years afterwards, the jsame King 
was obliged to approve another bill containing, in substance, the same provisions! 

The last occasion of the exercise of this prerogative b}^ the King of England, 
was in 1694. In that year a bill was passed to secure free and impartial proceed- 
ings in Parliament, by the exclusion from the House of Commons of certain officers 



11 

of the Crown. The representatives of the people struggled against the overshad- 
owing influence of the King, exerted in their midst by his paid servants, the re- 
ward of whose success in fashioning the action of the Commons to the complexion 
of the royal will, was the smile and gold of royalty, not the consciousness of a 
faithful discharge of duty to their country. The Royal Veto fell upon the bill. The 
Commons, justly incensed, determined boldly to express their disapprobation of the 
King's conduct. They resolved, "That whoever advised the King not to give the 
royal assent to the act touching free and impartial proceedings in Parliament, which 
was to redress a grievance, and tal;e oif a scandal upon the proceedings of the Com- 
mons in Parliament, is an enemy to his Majesty and the kingdom." They further 
laid a representation before the King, showing how few instances have been in former 
reigns of denying the royal assent to bills for redress of grievances, and the great g^rief 
of the Commons for his refusal of the royal assent to this bill, and beseeching the King 
to hearken for the future to the advice of his Parliament, rather than to the counsels 
of particular ^evsons^ who might have private interests of their oivn, separate from 
those of his majesty and the people. 

This sturdy stand of the Commons availed nothing at the time, but, about six 
years after, this same king abandoned his position, and approved a bill embracing 
provisions similar to those contained in that upon which he had placed his veto. 

From this year, 1694, to the present day, let it not be forgotten, no British 
Monarch has ventured to exercise the Veto poxoer. 

THE HISTORY OP THE EXERCISE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL VETO. 

The establishment of the Government of the United States was an experiment. 
No one could venture to foretell how the system would work or what would be its 
ultimate fate. The formation of a Constitution was not all that had to be done. — - 
That instrument had to be construed, and the extent and effect of the powers 
granted by it to be defined. The sphere of each department had to be marked out. 
Each of the three distinct magistracies had to be started in the right track. The 
country stood in need of great sagacity and statesmanship to keep the new and 
untried machinery in regular and effective motion. A single mistep might result 
disastrously ; a single screw loose, or a single clog interposed, might derange or 
overturn the whole fabric. 

Under such circumstances it might reasonably be expected that, for some time, 
the President would find somewhat frequent occasions for the exercise of the Veto 
power ; not for the purpose of baffling Congress, but that, in any case of serious 
doubt, all possible deliberation might be had in the passage of proposed measures. 
And yet we find that from the beginning of Washington's Administration, in 1789, 
to the beginning of that of Jackson, in 1829, — a perioa of forty years, — the Veto 
was interposed hxsX eight times ;— ^tuice by Washington, j^i'e times by Madison, 
and once by Monroe. Neither Mr. Jefferson nor the elder or younger Adams made* 
any use of it. And he who will take the trouble to read the brief messages in 
which those eight vetoes were transmitted, cannot escape the conviction, that, in 
no single instance, did the President withhold liis approval, with the slightest view 
of embarrassing Congress, or of infringing upon its constitutional prerogatives. In 
the hands of Washington, Madison, and Monroe, the power was, what the Consti- 
tution intended, conservative and salutary, and the people felt no disposition to com- 
plain against its exercise in that spirit. 

With the opening of the Administi-ation of Gen. Jackson a new era in the exer- 
cise of the Veto began , — the era of arbitrary Executive domination ; of violent 
interference with the action of Congress ; of perverse and obstinate resistance of 
the will of the people as expressed through their representatives ; of the 
setting up of the will of ONE MAN against that of the majority of Congress ; 
of the employment of the power and patronage of the Government to sustain that 
will; in a word, the era of REPUBLICAN MONARCHY. Twenty years 
have scarcely elapsed since that era began, and the Executive GAG has been ap- 
plied no less than TWENTY-THREE TIMES to bills passed by Congress ! 
And, what is worse, in more than half of these instances the " pockeV veto, — that 



12 

contrivance of tyranny to crush ^vith inevitable death its object, — was shamelessly 
resorted to. The direct Veto was used eleven, and the pocket Veto twelve times. 

Gen. Jackson used the former/owr and the latter eight times. John Tyler used 
the former six and the latter thee times. James K. Polk has resorted to each once. 

Of the bills thus defeated, ten related to the construction of works of improve- 
ment, including coast works, light houses, surveys, roads, rivers, canals, and har- 
bors ; three were for the establishment of a national bank ; two were tariff bills ; 
and the rest embraced the following subjects : — the distribution of the proceeds of 
the sales of the public lands ; the re-payment to the States of interest paid by them 
for moneys borrowed by them on account of the Federal Government and expend- 
ed in the service the'reof; the day of the meeting and adjournment of Congress; 
the funds receivable in payment of the public revenue ; the regulation of contested 
elections ; the construction of revenue cutters ; and the payment of American citi- 
*zens for French Spoliations, prior to the 3'ear ISOO. 

Now, plainly, it was impossible, in all these twenty-three cases, covering so wide 
a fifeld, that Congress should have passed unconstitutional bills, or fallen into rash, 
immature, or factious legislation. To suppose such a thing is an insult to that body. 
To deny that in many of the cases, if not in every one, there was a direct and un- 
justifiable attack on the legislative department of the Government, and throughout 
the whole a deep seated determination to browbeat Congress, and subdue it com- 
pletely to the ONE MAN POWER, is to manifest a blindness of judgment, and 
an abjectness of party fealt}', which does no honor to the individual, and bodes no 
good to the country. 

THE POSiTiOX OF THE LOCOFOCO PARTY IN RELATION TO THE VETO. 

The people of this country have a deep and abiding interest in knowing — not 
:merely supposing or guessing, but knoiomg — who are the advocates of their rights, 
■ and who uphold the grasping pretensions of Executive usurpation. The two great 
parties d? the country are divided and exactly opposed on this very subject ; and 
that man is wholly unworthy of the high privileges of an American citizen, who 
will not search diligently and honestly, until he finds out which is the party of the 
People and which the party of the Executive ; or who refuses examination and be- 
lief of the evidence placed before him. 

Let no man, then, wilfully blind himself to the great and undoubted fact, con- 
nected with the exercise of this monarchical power during the last tv^-enty years, that 
self-styled Democratic Presidents have done the acts, and that the Democratic 
party, falsely so called, has, from first to last, except in a single case, sustained the 
Presidents. ' This party, claiming to be, above all others, the party of the people, 
-and assuming a name indicative of peculiar devotion to the supremacy of the peo- 
ple, has, with amazing contempt alike of the intelligence, the rights, and the well- 
fare of the people, arrayed itself on the side of Executive despotism, and there 
stands, upholding the President in the exercise of kingly power to defeat the will of 
the People expressed through their constituted Representatives. The entire history 
of the world does not present a more glaring example of professions of regard for 
the people shamelessly belied by the practices of those making them. 

A member of the House of Representatives, in Congress, a friend of Mr. Van 
Buren, met a Whig Senator, in a steamboat, in the early part of the Presidential 
campaign of 1S40, when the former said to the latter, " Your log cabin and hard 
cider is no go. We shall beat ycu." "How so" asked the Senator. " Mr. Van 
Buren," answered the Member, " relies upon the words Democracy — Democrat — 
^nA Democratic. We all rely upon them as a party. While we wear this name, 
you cannot beat us, but we shall beat you." 

This is a story oi fact, told by the Senator himself, and it speaks volumes. But 
for these words Democrat, Democracy, and Democratic, the party that claims them 
would long since have been numbered with the forgotten things of earth. Un- 
der the protection of those names, that party has, in the short space of a score of 
years, done more to plant and nourish despotic power in this 'and ; more to pull 
down the most cherished institutions of the country ; niore to corrupt public sentj- 



13 

ment ; and more to loosen the ties of public virtue, honor, and good faith, than ever 
■was done in the same time, in any land under the sun, whose institutions so long 
survived the shock. Not one act of Executive usurpation, proscription, dictation, or 
corruption has been done, which has not found an ever ready defender in this so 
called Democratic \)Mty . Pre-eminently they have sustained the flagitious resoit to 
the Executive Gag, by which the rights and will of the people have been contemn- 
ed and trampled upon ; and they stand now before the nation, through their dele- 
gates in the Baltimore Convention, the avowed and only advocates in this entire 
land of the use of that last remaining attribute of royalty in our republican form of 
government. 

Among the resolutions passed by that Convention, is the following: 
" Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified Veto power, 
by which he is enabled, under restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public 
interest, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval of two-thirds of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, 
and which has saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank 
of the United States, and from a corrupting system of general internal improvements." 

Speciously Avorded as this resolution is, its import cannot escape the obseivation 
of the most obtuse. Its unlimited advocacy of the Veto, though not expressed, is 
perfectly apparent. This advocacy is attempted to be cloaked under opposition 
to taking the poioer entirely away from the President, when it has never been pro- 
posed to take it from him, nor could any such proposition by any possibility be ad- 
opted ; requiring, as it would, an amendment of the National Constitution, which 
could never be made. The resolution carefully avoids the expression of an}^ gene- 
ral doctrine in reference to the exercise of the Veto ; but expressly approves its past 
exercise on two subjects, in regard to which its most frequent use has been made. 
Now, put the three things together, — the opposition to taking the Veto power from 
the President : the absence of any expression in regard to its general exercise; and 
the approval of its past use in the cases indicated; and what does it mean but that 
the party- is the pledged advocate, not only of the Constitutional grant of power, 
but of the unlimited resort to it, in every case where Congress passes a bill that 
falls under the condemnation of this spurious Democracy. 

The truth is, and every man in the land should see and understand it in all its 
bearings, that the Locofocos struggle for the Veto, foIc'; {or the purpose of wielding 
it to uphold the dominion of their party. They ha.^ used it for twenty years 
with the sole object of defeating the policy ana measures of the Whig party, which 
they know, if once, fairly carried out, would ccmman'd the approbation of the country ; 
and they will use it for that purpose forever, if they can so long elect their Presi- 
dent. The resolutions of +he Baltimore Convention have, throughout, but one 
great principle — Opposition. They are opposed to every thing the Whigs favor, 
and more besides. They are in favor of nothing but the Sub-Treasury, the Veto,^ 
the Mexican War, and James K. Polk. They go for pulling down, but do not 
offer to build up. They go for destruction, but propose nothing in the place of 
what they would destroy. They would strip the Government of every useful and 
beneficent power, and leave it to die of utier imbecility. To carry out the spirit 
of those resolutions, the Veto is an indispensable engine of despotism and destruc- 
tion. Without it, the whole " Democratic Platform " is ricketty and rotten in 
every joint. No wonder, then, that the party struggle fiercely for it. Bent on a 
work of death to our institutions, the Executive Gag is with them the first, last, 
and most necessary and most powerful weapon, and once possessed of- it, they 
hardly need any thing more. When to all this we add the whole acts of the party 
for tw-enty years, sustaining the constant and blasting resort to the Veto, and the 
drawing into the hands of the President every possible element and instrument of 
power, what further proof can any honest man ask, that that party,' so far from 
being the true Democratic party of this land, is the only party that upholds the 
ONE MAN Government, which Col. Benton denounced as a MONARCHY, no 
matter by what name it rmj be called .'' 

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S OPINIONS ON EXECUTIVE POWER. 

This Locofoco party is wont, on all occasions, to trace its origin tack to Thomas 



14 

Jefferson, and to quote his opinions with the profoundest reverence. What were 
his views on this great subject ? 

If he was distinguished for one thing above all others, it was his steadfast oppo- 
sition to the encroachments of Executive power on the rights of the people. 
Whatever else his opponents might say of him, it was never laid to his charge that 
he did aught to weaken the power of the People, or strengthen that of the Executive. 

In the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the author, the verv first 
lact with which he appealed to the world against the King of Great Britain, was, 
that "Ae had refused Ms assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good ; " and he then proceeds with the long list of oppressions to which the 
American people had been subjected. 

The spirit of resistance to tyranny which he exhibited in the preparation of that 
instrument, we have every reason to believe, never left him. It led to his arraying 
himself, soon after the formation of the Constitution, against the encroachments of 
Executive power, and to the formation, in 1798, of the Republican party, of which 
he was the head. But hear his own language on this point, contained in a letter 
addressed by him to John Adams, dated June 27, 1813, and published in the 4th 
volume of his Memoirs, p. 202 : 

"The terms Whig and Tory belong to national as well as civil history. They denote the temper 
and constitution of mind of different individuals^ To come to our own country, and t© the times 
when you and I became first acquainted ; we well remember the violent parties which agitated the 
old Congress and their bitter contests. There you and I were arrayed together ; others cherished 
the monarchy of England, and we the rights of our country. 

"But as soon as the Constitution was put in motion, the line of division was again drawn. We 
broke into two parties, each wishing to give the government a different direction; THE ONE (the 
Republican partv) TO STRENGTHEN THE MOST POPULAR BRA !VCH, (Congress,) THE 
OTHER THE MORE PERMANENT BRANCHES, AND TO EXTEND THEIR PERMA- 
NENCE. Here you and I separated for the first time, and one party placed your name at their 
head — the other'selected mine." 

Place the statements of this letter, together with the whole tenor of Mr. Jeffer- 
son's public career, alongside of the great fact that during the eight years he was 
President he did not in a single instance exercise the Veto powerj and no man can 
help seeing that the daring resort to despotic power by Locofoco Presidents, and 
their support in it by the Locofoco party, and the position of that party in favor of 
the Veto, receive no sanction from the life, actions, or opinions of him, whom Gen. 
Cass, in his letter accepting his nomination for the Presidency, styled the " great 

EXPOUNDER of AMERICAN DEMOCRACY." 

THE rOSITION OF GEN. CASS IN RELATION TO THE VETO. 

One would naturally expect to. find the "Democratic" candidate for the Presi- 
dency, agreeing on this important subject with the " great expounder of American 
Democracy;" but there could be no greater mistake. When we wish to learn 
what ground Gen. Cass occupies on this or any other subject, instead of going 
back to see how Mr. Jefferson regarded it, we need only inquire for the utterances 
of the Baltimore Convention! In his letter accepting the nomination of that 
body, he says : 

" I HAVE CAREFULLY READ THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL 

Convention, laying dov^n the platform of our political faith, and I 
ADHERE TO THEM FIRMLY, AS I APPROVE THEM CORDIALLY." 

Nothing need be added to this, to define his position on this point. The Con- 
vention declared, as we have seen, in favor of the Veto, and of the suppression of 
the will of the People -by its exercise, and Lewis Cass responds with a ready and 
emphatic Amen ! Let the people of the United States look to it, that this defen- 
der of regal power do not receive authority from them to use that power, as he is 
bound by his party allegiance to do, and certainly will do, if elected, to ■ nullify 
their will and prostrate the vital interests of the country ! 

OLD ROUGH AND READY'S VIEWS ON THE VETO. 

These we find clearly and unmistakeably expressed, in his letter to Capt. J. S. 
Allison, dated April 22, 1848. The old hero, though no politician, seems to have 
discovered at a glance that the great danger threatening our institutions qt this 
time, is the corrupting influence of Executive power ; and he speaks out these 



15 

words of wisdom and patriotism, which deserve, if ever v/ords did, to be written in 
letters of gold in every habitation and every capitol of this our kind. 

" The power given by the Constitution to the Executive to interpose 
HIS veto is a high .'•nservative power, but in my opinion should never be 

EXERCISED, EXCEPT IN CASES OF CLEAR VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, OR 
MANIFEST HASTE and want of CONSIDERATION BY CoNGRESS. InDEED, I 
HAVE THOUGHT, THAT FOR MANY YEARS PAST, THE KNOWN OPINIONS AND WISHES 

OF THE Executive have exercised undue and injurious influence upon the 
Legislative Department of the Government, and from this cause I have 

THOUGHT our SYSTEM WAS IN DANGER OF UNDERGOING A GREAT CHANGE FROM 
ITS TRUE THEORY. ThE PERSONAL OPINIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHO MAY 
HAPPEN TO OCCUPY THE EXECUTIVE ChAIR, OUGHT NOT TO CONTROL THE 

ACTION OF Congress upon questions of domestic policy, nor ought his 
objections to be interposed, when questions of constitutional power 
have been settled by the various departments of the government, and 
acquiesced in by the people. 

" Upon the subject of the tariff, the currency, the improvement of 
OUR great highways, rivers, lakes, and harbors, THE WILL OF THE 

PEOPLE, AS EXPRESSED THROUGH THEIR REPRESENTATIVES IN CoNGRESS, 

OUGHT TO BE RESPECTED AND CARRIED OUT BY THE EX- 
ECUTIVE." 

The first remark to be made in relation to this admirable expression of opinion 
is, that the whole life and character, public and private, of Gen. Taylor, forbid a 
-doubt of his perfect sincerity in making it, or of hi? acting out these views in the 
Presidency, should he be elected. 

Further than that, the plain import of the language justifies the foUowino" con- 
,clusions : — 

That he repudiates the Locofoco doctrine of the President being a part of the 
Xe.gislative Department of the Government : 

That he condemns the Locofoco resort to the Veto for party purposes : 

That, in cases where mere questions of policy are involved, he holds that the 
President has no right to interfere with the action of Congress, by the exercise of 
the Veto, except where there is "mam/es^" haste and want of consideration by 
Congress : " 

That he renounces the Locofoco doctrine of applying the Veto on constructive 
.constitutional grounds, and would confine its exercise, for constitutional reasons, to 
" cases of clear violation of the Constitution : " 

That, seeing from the history of the Locofoco party and the acts of Locofoco 
Presidents, the danger to the liberties of tfie country from Executive influence 
■upon Congress, he would, as President, Avholly abstain from any attempt to sway 
the action of that body by his personal or official influence : — And finally, 

That, under his Administration, the right of Congress to make laws for the 
country, and the right of the majority to govern, icould be fdly recognised and 
steadfastly maintained. 

THE great and VITAL ISSUE. 

When the people of the United States cast off the yoke of British dominion, 
and formed a government for themselves, they assumed before the world the solemn 
Tesponsibility, upon themselves and their posterity, of asserting the right of man 
TO self-government. Seventy-two years have passed since they stood up to 
fight for that great and inestimable right. The spirit of American freedom has 
crossed the great ocean, and over all Europe oppressed nations are, in this year 
1848, struggling with mighty and resistless energy for the rights which we success- 
fully asserted in 1776. For months past every breeze from the eastward has borne 
to our shores joyful tidings of the triumph of freedom, and the glorious establish- 
ment of the rights of man on the ruins of monarchy and despotism. And yet, 
strange and wonderful to see, here, on the very soil and in the very home of free- 
dom, and among the people who achieved the first great triumph of Republican 



f| 58 evS « 



16 

government, THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO GOVERN IS AGAIN 
AT STAKE ! This, we solemnly affirm, in the presence of the American people, 
is THE GREAT AND VITAL ISSUE of this Presidential contest ; in com- 
parison with which questions of policy sink into immeasurable insignificance. 

Other issues which were before the people in 1844, are now, by the force of the 
circumstances in which the country has been placed by the acts of James K. Polk 
and the Locofoco party, disposed of for the present. The National Debt, of largely 
over ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, entailed on usbythe Mexican 
war creates a necessity for an increase of the Tariff, whether politicians wish it 
or not The issue of SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND LAND WARRANTS 
to the soldiers in the Mexican war, covering TWELVE MILLION ACRES 
OF LAND, will absorb the Public Domain for at laast four years to come ; and, 
of course settles, for that length of time, the question of the Distribution of the 
Proceeds of the Sales of the Public Lands. The creation of a National Bank is 
no longer agitated, and will not probably again be brought forward by the Whig 
party. We are, therefore, fully justified in declaring that the great question before 
the nation now is, whether THE PEOPLE or ONE MAN shall govern }_ In 
this the careful observer will see that all other questions are merged. The policy 
of the Whig party dem.ands that the Executive Veto should be silenced, except in 

clear and extreme cases; that of the LiOCofocO party reqUirCS that it should be 

wielded in every case, lohere Congress passes a hilt opposed to the doctrines of 
the Baltimore Convention. The Veto Power, then, for the time, embraces every 
thing else, and becomes, in the broadest sense, THE GREAT AND VITAL 
ISSUE OF THIS CAMPAIGN. 

On one side of this issue is Lewis Cass, the open and undisguised advocate for 
mere party purposes, of Executive power, Executive influence. Executive domi- 
nation, and the Executive Gag upon the people's voice. Backed by the Locofoco 
party, and ready and anxious, if elected, to obey everv behest of that party, from- 
him nothing can be hoped but the fiercest and most despohc exertion of party hatred 
party vengeance, and party dominion. Claiming his election as a popular sanction 
ol all the past atrocities of that party, and of all the deadly doctrines of the Con- 
vention that nominated him, he will devote himself, and all his official power and 
influence, to the renewal of those atrocities and the permanent establishment of 
tnose doctrines and the fearful power of his party, in this country, through all sue 
ceedmg time. & '^^ 

ih?v^' ,°«rer side of that issue stands Zachary Taylor, the great champion of 
the People's rights, the People's will, the People's influence, and the People's 
supremacy over the Executive Gag, and over every other phase and form of Ex- 
ecutive^ aggression and domination. Sustained on this ground by the oreat Whiff 
party, but bound by no slavish party allegiance ; accustomed through nearly hil 
whole life to power and command, and yet freely renouncing, in advance, the undue 
use of power if elected President; equally accustomed, during a long life, to de- 
tend and uphold the honor and glory of the country at the head of its gallant 
soldiery, he stands before the nation, bearing aloft the standard of the o-brious ar- 
ray ot Whig freemen, and proclaiming, in the language of deep and fervent pat- 
riotism, 1 have no private purposes to accomplish— no party projects to 

BUILD UP NO ENEMIES TO PUNISH NOTHING TO SERVE BUT MY COUNTRY '" 

From such a man the country has nothing to fear, but every thincr of good to 
hope. By his elevation to the Presidency, the reign of denunciation, proscription 
corrupt^n and t^Tanny will be brougjit to a perpetual end ; the Government of 
IHJL FEUPLE will once more be re-established and the nation will rejoice, 
in restored prosperity, integrity and honor. 



C. W. Fenton, print., Washington, D. C. 



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